I used large garbage systems for years and there are a couple of problems with this story. I can’t imagine a place the size of a jail with anything less than one of those twenty foot long roll-offs and a compactor. So I looked it up. The ram peaks at 49,000 psi. I never knew that, but I did throw oak pallets and other things in there to see what the ram would do to them. The ram always won.

I don’t know anyone who underestimated the power of one of those things, especially after they spent some time shoving five tons of stuff into one and watching the ram make it fit. Anyone who was not sure how they got the trash out of there could see it when they rolled the replacement container off the truck. If you were in there when they opened the door and tipped the container, you would get ten thousand pounds of trash dumped on your head.

Maybe this guy was really that stupid. We have Darwin Awards for a reason. But I have to question the “security flaw” mentioned in the news story. If they’re just trying to prevent an escape, all they need to do is put a picture of this guy next to the compactor. He did not “escape.”

But what if someone put him in there? If he was subdued or forced into the compactor, any injuries he sustained would be concealed by injuries caused by the ram, or by the five tons of trash that dropped on top of him. If he was killed and then later put in there, they could see that. But if he was alive and someone else put him in there to kill him, it would be almost impossible to prove it.

So is the policy now for a guard to accompany the inmates when they dump the trash?

There have been a few escapes in compactor systems that were successful. One used 4 by 4’s cut to 16-18” to protect himself; I’m not sure that the ram really went all the way home. Pretty bold, but lifers can be quite desperate.

Most prison sally ports now attach a heartbeat detector ( earthquake rescue technology) to every vehicle leaving the compound.